TactiPEd: Easy Prototyping of Tactile Patterns

We present the design and evaluation of a tactile editor, TactiPEd for the rapid and easy prototyping of vibrotactile patterns. It is based on the graphical metaphor of the shape of the device, which is used for the tuning of the main tactile characteristics, including amplitude, frequency and duration of tactile sequences. The editor includes file systems functionalities using the XML format along with playing and recording functionalities. The editor was thoroughly evaluated: a usability evaluation was conducted with 9 participants, the designed metaphor-based patterns were analyzed for insights on cross-device design and finally the editor was tested with several devices. TactiPEd was successfully and easily used with little training and enabled users to design patterns in little time. The resulting patterns shared common characteristics across the devices for a given metaphor.